By Paul Schwartz - GJD Contributor/Peekamoose Custom Guitars NYC
Who's Got The Chops? And why do you care? It's important to do a fret leveling which delivers a sympathetic alignment across the variations of four seasons and several years. This points back to the concept of an 18 to 36 month arc for most necks. Let's say from a practical point of view starting from virtually perfect frets, that most necks under five years old will need some corrective fret dressing every two or three years regardless of the actual wear in the frets. Board compression alone can completely change how an instrument sounds and feels. Older necks can often go longer, but this is also tied to how low someone wants their action, what gauge strings, how imperative it is their intonation is as close to perfect as possible, etc.

So how much discrepancy is too much? Generically speaking discrepancy
of .003" to .005" from fret to fret will affect: tone, sustain, and
intonation. But that being said most of the fretwork in circulation is
nowhere close to that level of precision and most players these days
tend to favor heavier strings and higher action in the name of tone. So most shops and builders get off easy. There are a handful of
luthiers that can hit the mark of +-.003 when they take the time. That's an error margin of .006".
The part of this that is rough on
luthiers is the amount of time it takes to deliver that type of
accuracy is several hours. That is assuming the person doing the work
has the chops to execute at that level.
Sadly there is no way to
accurately bill for that type of work. So most people bill fretwork at
a flat rate based of parameters of construction materials and hardware.

The Stainless fetish....At the moment many players are hot for
stainless. EVO is an alternate similarly hard material for fret wire. It's gold, you'll see it on the Les Paul Supreme. Both materials are
dramatically harder than 18% nickel. But regardless of the hardness of
fretwire, fret alignment will change due to board compression. So with
that in mind you have to take into account that every person doing
instrument repairs who is not a complete masochist charges more to work
with the harder wires. It's crazy not to.
Stainless and EVO are harder
on tools and take longer to manipulate. Let's say for the sake of
averages, in cities where there is a high concentration of musicians
and the cost of running a shop is not cheap, we generally see prices
for Stainless or EVO fret dressing being $100 to $150 higher than
working on 18% nickel, and re-frets running $150 to $200 higher.
So is
there an upside?

Here's my take on it. If you are the type of player who puts huge
dents in 18% nickel wire over a period of six to twelve months, paying
the extra money for work and materials to have harder wire might make
sense. Because with harder wire you will then be doing a fret dress
every two to three years like everyone else. Or, possibly go longer if
you have higher action, heavier strings, things that would make minor
fret alignment errors less obvious. But if you think using stainless
or EVO will remove the need for regular fret care because it will take
a long time before you put dents in the frets....That assumption is
not accurate unless you already play with heavier strings and
reasonably high action. If you are playing with action of 3/64 at the
12th fret and 9-42 or 9-46....You are going to know as soon as those
frets drift a hair off line.

Why are there exceptions? Or how about.... Why is it you've been
playing your guitar for years, the frets are kinda beat up but it
doesn't seem to buzz? Most players have learned to accommodate the
shortcomings of their instruments. We all do subtle almost unconscious
things to exert control over how an instrument sounds. And there are
players who favor high action. As a result they can go longer because
the strings will have greater clearance over the frets, which in turn
hides the smaller discrepancies. Some musicians do not immediately
recognize subtle changes in playability.
I've found that is often true
with owners who have always played instruments that required more
muscle to control. However, in most cases, once exposed to
instruments, which are more supple and responsive to subtle changes in
grip and attack, a person's awareness becomes more sensitive.
Recognizing the physical manifestations of subtle changes in how an
instrument feels and performs gradually increases over time.